Barbel blanking part with the rat pack! 24 Sept

This session saw me on a very popular stretch of the Thames, the same section where only the week before a very large catfish had been reported as lost at the net after an hour long fight.

Upon arrival at around 1930, there was one other guy just packing up further along the stretch, but other than that, there was no one else around.
One thing I noticed immediately was that the water level was up to almost over the bank, which I think was probably down to the EA holding the water back from the weir upstream. The water was still crystal clear, I could pick out bits on the bottom about a rod length out, thats how clear it is!!

I set about setting everything up, as the water was so clear and not moving at all, I decided to fish with a slack line and bobbins resting ont he floor, just as I would for carp in a lake, coupled with a flying back lead, I was sure that I had laid the line along the bottom.

Hooklengths again, 8lb mono, size 8 hooks, on one with 2 glugged 15mm boilies, the other a standard 18mm straight from the packet, both rigs were cast out with PVA bags full of mixed Halibut pellets.
I put a scattering of boilies out mid river and fished one rod over these, the other rod was fished "roving" style, and cast around the swim every half hour.

Darkness came and with it as did the rats, now I dont know what it is abot rats, but they freak the hell out of me, and with one running back and forth under my rods, setting my alarms off due to the slack line, it did nothing to calm me!!!

A fish would have taken my mind off of it but that was not to be, I packed up at 2200, fishless!!!

Im not too bothered about blanking, after all it seems 90% of the people I have spoken to are all in the same boat, so it seems being in the right spot at the right time is something I have not achieved yet!!!

Another spinning session 19 Sept

This weeks session was a return to our perch / lure spot that we seem to have discovered.

Im sure its the massive amounts of fry that congregate this area that keep the perch, chub and pike there.


We arrived early afternoon, (Claire's sister and boys were already there with a bucket and net trying to catch tiddlers) and Claire began setting up her rod with her now very popular Mepps aglia spinner.

Again the spot produced chub and perch to me and Claire, along with a bucket full of roach fry and a single, fin perfect perch of probably an ounce!!

There is still no one else fishing the spot despite it being very popular with kids etc, so its still an area marked out to explore further with a feeder or barbel rods.

Barbel Blanking 13th Sept 09

This week finally saw me out with the barbel rods to the same spot I fished a few weeks back.
I was working all day but managed to get out half hour early, so it was home, grab a bite to eat and the rods and out.
My original plan was to fish and area I have not done much barbel fishing before, but due to romours of a big fish being lost doing the rounds on the internet forums, it was packed there with all the decent pegs gone.
I decided to drive to a spot a little closer to home, and an area that I have caught from in the past.

I arrived to find the swim empty, in fact the whole stretch was empty, which was a little strange to say the least as there are normally at least one or two anglers there.

I set up 2 rods, identically, with 10lb mainline, 8lb hooklinks,korda flying backlead and size 10 hooks with a 1inch hair rig and 2oz gripper leads. Bait wise I stuck to tried and tested, glugged source 15mm and Prawn & shellfish 15mm on the other. The close in rod was the prawn bait and was followed by around 30 freebies, and 50 8mm trout pellets. The source rod was attached to a PVA bag of mixed halibuts soaked in source liquid andcast just past mid river.

I decided that as I have faith in these baits and methods, I would cast them out and leave them there for the remainder of the session, knowing how hard the river has been this year I didnt want to risk spooking ay fish that may have been in the area.

Well I would love to say that I bagged up, but I didnt, the wind was pretty bad bouncing the rod tips all over the place so I couldnt see any indications on them, I had to rely on the alarms to alert me, but they remained motionless!!

There was a distinct lack of fish topping last night, normally the river comes alive at dusk with fish rolling all over, but I saw 2 small fish top when I first arrived then nothing for the rest of the evening.

I think on my next session I am going to spend time leading around to find any features.
I normally just presume that the middle of the river is gravel and just chuck the rig out, but as last night proved when I reeled in to find my bait gone and my hook attached to a swan mussel, it shouldnt be a chuck and chance it approach.
So Im going to search out some fishable features to see if it improves my catch reports at all.

River Thames Tuesday 25th August

This weeks session was to the same stretch as last week. Knowing that there were a few of Claire's target fish in this area made it an easy decision as to where to head.
We arrived early afternoon just after Claire finished work, tackle was no different to last week, even down to the same Mepps spinner!!

Claire started the session off, myself again chosing not to take a rod so that I could help her out with unhooking and snags etc.
A few casts in and she was into the swing of things, but decided to let me have ago!! Not wanting to take any fish away from her, I had a couple of half hearted chucks about, and first cast I was into a fish. Not massive, but a small perch had grabbed the spinner.
I quickly unhooked and returned him none the worse for wear.

I decided to let Claire fish out the session, so that I didnt catch anymore!
I cant remember exactly, but I think a few casts in she may have hooked and lost a perch. Anyhow, several casts later and Claire was all excited as she had hooked something. I was only a few paces away but I could still hear the tell tail signs of the clutch ticking away. Thinking she had hook the bottom, I wandered over to discover it was the bottom, but her first ever pike.

She played it expertly after I had given her a few
tips last week, I was soon bending down to land
the pike. It wasnt massive, but she was very
excited, at a little over a pound, it was in
immaculate condition, probably never having been hooked before.

Still not wanting to hold the fish a few pics were snapped on her mobile of me holding the fish.

I was very proud that I had taught her all she knew about fishing and here she was all excited about catching her first pike, just as the week before with the perch.

Several more casts and she was in again!!

I told her that as soon as that first fish was caught, plenty more would follow and sure enough after many blan sessions, she was playing her 3rd fish in 2 sessions!!

I still had not seen the fish as I was making sure Jake was secure so he didnt fall in the river, but I could hear Claire saying "whats that" and "it looks like a roach" looking over the side to lift the fish fron the water I was greeted by another immaculate conditioned fish, this time a chub.

Again not a massive fish, but then it didnt need to be, the massive grin on Claire's face said it all. She was well happy to have caught 2 different species.

Taking her tally of different fish caught to 7, having caught perch, pike, ruffe, dace, roach, bleak and chub, topped by her personal pest Perch of 1.06.

This week may see a change in approach, I am collecting my feeder gear so I can enjoy some small fish sport with the possibility of a bream or 2, plus Claire fancies trying worm and maggot for some more perch.

I have 2 killos of partimix seed at home to make up and freeze to us through the feeder. The small fish really do go mad for this seed, and I have had several good sessions from the Thames using seed as feed and maggot on the hook. The good thing about the seed is it offers plenty of change baits, as there are so many differnt sized seeds in the mix and once soften can quite easily be used on the hook.

I have still not been out with the barbel rods. Maybe ill wait for Autumn and give it a go, aswell as dusting off the pike gear for autumn and winter.


Until next time..........

River Thames 17th August

The session this week was one a bit different in that I didnt actually take a fishing rod with me, instead preferring to concentrate on helping Claire to catch on her rod and lures.

The rod I brought her is a telescopic Berkley light lure / jig rod, rated to 35 grams its perfect for working small lures, plugs and spinners aswell as jelly worms on jig heads.
I coupled this with a small Shimano 500 reel, which is a tiny front drag reel, light as anything, so ideal for Claire. The reel is loaded with 14lb berkley fireline braid, and traces are made from Drennan 10lb soft wire.
I was going to do away with the wire, but with the amount of pike in the Thames its probably best to keep it, as pike will bite through most materials, but not wire.

Claire's lure box is filled with small plugs, shads, worms, mepps spinners. All aimed at catching perch, which, up until now, we had failed to do.

The only real experience of catching large perch I have is a few years back up on the River Ouse, I managed to catch a couple of fish over a 1lb on spinnerbaits intended for pike in a weir pool, followed later that same afternoon by a perch of an ounce under 3lb taking a bleak that had taken my feeder fished maggots. The perch fishing that day was very good as I was catching fish of 1lb on the feeder, upto 2lb on lures and then the near '3' effectively on a livebait.
Its something I really need to do more of, perch fishing on the Ouse, its home to some monster fish.

Anyway, back to the session. We arrived early afternoon, after Claire had finished work and after resisting the temptation of taking my lure rod, I set hers up with a small bladed spinner. I then told claire where abouts to aim her casts, which, of course, she missed, lol. Its not her fault though, she is more used to fishing with a 3mtr whip!!

After about ten casts and she whacked one up the tree on the far bank! This resulted in a lost trace and lure. It didnt even "just" catch it, it was embedded half way up the tree. (Maybe she was trying to cast over the island) After tying on a new trace and attaching a larger Mepps Aglia, The casting began again, a little gingerly at first due to the lost tackle before, she was soon back in the swing of it though, cast into the shadows on the far bank.
I presumed this would be where the perch would hold up as it was out of the sun, and there were masses of fry from our margin to about half way across, so it figured the perch would be sat just past halfway in the deeper water, waiting to ambush the fry as it travelled over head.

This plan was executed perfectly when claire said her line didnt feel right when she was reeling in, looking into the water I could see a perch shaking its head to try and rid itself of the hooks.
Being the first fish properly hooked on a rod and reel by Claire is was a little confusing for her, and resulted in the perch falling off right in the edge just as I was about to pick it from the water. Ah well, 1-o to the perch!!

A few more casts resulted in nothing, so we move up a few yards, and almost straight away from over on the far bank Claire said she had hooked another one, learning from her previous mistake, she was unhurried and a bit more relaxed, bring the perch into the edge where I picked it from the water. Her first fish on a lure was on the bank, as I lifted it fron the water, Claire let out a scream, of "yes!!"
Weighing about half a pound, maybe a little more, claire was very happy with it. A couple of pics of me holding the fish (Claire has not yet got to the point of holding the fish for pictures) and it was released.
Several more casts in the same swim resulted in one more hooked and lost fish.
We fished the remaining swims, but no more action was forthcoming.

I did managed to have a couple of casts myself, the first was into a sunken branch which resulted in me losing the very lure Claire had just caught her perch on!!!
Looking into the box I had no more 10lb wire traces made up, so I had to make do with a 30lb one I had made up for my piking. Several most casts and I somehow managed to hook the same underwater branch I had lost the tackle on!! My god, what was going on!!!
Pulling for a break, I felt something give, and proceeded to pull in a branch from the underwater obstruction. To my amazement, there lodged in the branch I was pulling in was the lure I had just lost!! Claire was happy I had managed to get here now favourite lure back.

That ended the session.
The cabbage weed did not seem as pronounced as it did, a few weeks back when we fished there, I dont know if it is dying off already, it may have been due to the slight tinge of colour in the river and relative lack of sun which meant I just couldnt see into the water as I had been able to last week.
I have seen Chub right in the edge on previous ocassions, so im sure there will be carp and barbel in the area also, and so far on around 6 visits I have not seen another competant angler, plenty of kids and day "noddies" but no one that actually looks like they know what they are doing, so it might definately be an area to investigate further.

River Thames Sunday 9th August

After returning back from my honeymoon the week before I was itching to get out and get some fishing in, so it was after a healthy tesco breakfast, that we decided to swing by the tackle shop and get a couple of pints of maggots and spend a few hours drowning them down the thames.

We drove to a swim that we regularly fish for small stuff, but that swim was taken, so we drove to another area a few miles up the road, but being the weekend, everywhere was packed. It was then that we decided to fish a spot that we hadnt done before.
We had fished lures and wobbled deadbaits in the past there and caught pike, but nothing with maggots.

To be honest I wasnt expecting to catch much, its a small bit of water round the back of an island, with depths around 5 foot, the cabbage weed covering most of the bottom came up a couple of feet, plus its quite clear water. But with maggots and a few hours to kill I decided to give it ago anyway, beats being at home cleaning up, even if I dont catch anything!!

I set up a 3 mtr whip with 3lb mainline, 2.6lb hooklength, size 18 hook, and a small 3bb stick float set about two and a bit foot deep, so I was fishing over the top of the cabbages.
It was simple fishing really, 10-15 maggots each cast, flick the rig out and within a few seconds I was getting bites. From there on I was getting a bite a chuck, litterally.
I wasnt hooking fish every cast, but I would say I hooked about 1 in 4 bites, mostly resulting in bleak, then I started catching some nice dace, which were well over half a pound. A few perch, roach and a few more bleak and the swim went dead.
Knowing that there were a few pike in this bit of river I used claire's light lure rod aith a small mepps spinner and first cast through the middle of my swim I hooked a perch which looked about half a pound in the water, but that came adrift amoungst a swirl on the surface and it was gone!! I had several more casts which all resulted in nothing.

Switching back to the whip resulted in bites again and I continued to catch bleak and dace until we left.

Claire was very happy to finally get some action on her lure set up, which saw her hook, but lose, several perch. So Im sure she is desperate to get back there and see if she can land one or two of them!
I quite fancy the area for barbel and carp too, so I may well have a session there very soon, with some heavier gear, as although the area is behind an island, you can cast out into the main river a few swims down, so im sure it would be a good place to target them. Who knows, we shall see.


I also have a tip for a small stretch of river not far from me, that may contain some carp and a few barbel, so thats something else I need to look into as its virtually on my door step!!

River Thames 07th July 2009

Finally I managed to get out with my barbel rods, well I say rods, I only took one as I thought with all the rain that was forcast, I couldnt be bothered with setting 2 rods up and then having to pack them both away in the rain.

I had driven out to the spot I planned to fish earlier in the day and deposited around 3/4's of a bag of 18mm DBMM boilies, and half a kilo of 8mm high oil trout pellets into a margin spot.
The swim has produced barbel for me in the past, my biggest thames fish in fact of 9.06.

I prebaited the swim, as I thought with the rain forcast all day I was hoping no one would be out, something I found to be true as I only found one other person fishing all day on my drive round to several different spots.

I arrived at my swim at just after 19:00 and proceeded to set up one rod with a very simple rig, korda lead clip, 2oz grippa lead, around 22inches of korda supernatural soft braid, to a size 8 owner hook, baited with an 18mm MM boilie. I also had a stop knot around 3foot above the lead with a large korda flying backlead rest on it. I knew the back lead wouldnt fly back on the cast as I was only fishing less then a rod length out so just lowering the rig off the rod tip was enough. I then let a little slack line out so the back lead was resting on the bottom, so I knew I had all my line at the buisness end pinned down to the bottom to hopefully eliminate any passing fish from touching the line.

My swim >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I had baited right in the edge, next to the cabbage weeds, its around 4 foot deep here, shelving off to around 8-10ft a little further out.

I was happy with my set up, happy the line was laying on the bottom, and happy I was fishing over bait that I had earlier introduced, All I needed now was for the fish to turn up. I decided that once I had cast out I would leave the rod there until I packed up. However I decided to reel in and put another handful of bait out and reposition the rod a little further out. I wasnt too bothered as I had a good spread of bait in that area, so it mattered not where I positioned the bait.

It was then that I decided to get my lure rod out of the car and have a few chucks of a spinnerbait. Not wanting to disturb my barbel/carp swim too much, I had half a dozen chucks of the lure to the left of the swim, first cast a small pike darted out of the cabbage and grabbed the lure, I could see it squirming and trying to shake the hook free under the surface, which it did a few seconds after hooking it. Second cast along the same line and the fish had it again, this time straight into the net after a few seconds of fight. At around 3lb it wasnt going to break any records, but I was happy I didnt blank. I had several more casts but not wanting to disturb my baited spot any more I packed the lure rod away.

Around 21.15, I was on the phone to my missus when I thought I saw the tip of my barbel rod knock. I mentioned it and then hang up the phone, hoping the tip was going to whip round at any moment. A few minutes later, the tip knocked again and there was definately something subsurface that was interested in my 18mm boilies.
This happened a couple more times before I eventually packed up at 22:00.

The weather has been shite for the past 3 days now, with intermitant showers and muggy weather. Hopefully the rain will liven the river up abit, as there seemed to very little flow. The river was alive with fish when the river fell calm, there were hundreds of small fish topping, followed by some larger fish rolling mid river, then slightly closer to me, until there was a couple of rolls about 3 rods lengths out.
These fish rolling where probably bream, although they could have been carp, but I didnt get a good look at them so who knows.

I returned to the river the next day and introduced another 3/4 of a kilo of boiles, so thats a kilo and half of boilies and probably half a kilo of pellet, so im hoping something will move over it in time for my next session which im hoping will be thursday evening!

River Thames lure session June 09

I have only managed a couple of half hearted sessions, whilst out for a drive along the river checking out spots and asking if others have been catching, so it was nice to actually have a wander along the river and fish a few spots with lures.

Claire had her little jig rod and I had my heavy lure rod for working rubber baits and big spinner baits.

We worked baits around a few areas that I have caught numbers of pike from in the past but to no avail.
The area is very attractive to pike, cabbage weed covers pretty much all the swims we fished, but we still didnt catch.

The river still looks like black tea at the moment, so im sure it has something to do with the lack of action.


My barbel rods are still sat in the corner, bait is ready, rucksack is sorted im just waiting for a free evening when I can have my first proper session out.

From the reports I have seen, there are a few carp and barbel being caught, and plenty of bream, so Im hoping to get out next week and give it a go

Start of the 2009 season

Its been a fairly slow start to the season on the River Thames, from what I have read alot of people are putting the lack of fish being caught down to the Algae that has coloured the river into a browny tea colour, it certainly seems to have played its part in putting the fish off. To date I have only heard of a handful of carp to 26lb, and a 10lb barbel, thats from 3 different forums catch reports (cemex, BFW and Maggotdrowning) so people are either not reporting their captures, or more likely are not actually catching anything!!

I have managed a couple of very short sessions with the jigging rod in search or predators, but to no avail, Im sure it was not helped by the guy who asked to set up in the swim I was fishing in last night, its only a small swim and I was casting the lures around it, what could I say really!! So he proceeded to set up next to me, hindering my casting and standing right near the edge (I have found that most lure takes come within feet from the bank) so that probably didnt help, but ill be back in the swim soon enough, it looks like it had some very good potential, quite deep close in with over hanging trees left right and opposite. So im sure there will be at least some carp present, maybe some big perch or chub, and hopefully some Barbel. So im hoping that before long Ill be able to get the barbel rods out and have a proper go.

I also found a spot that is frequented by some large carp, so thats got to be worth a try very soon, I think I should try and trickle some bait in there to get them going.

I really want Claire to catch some perch on her set up this year, they are her favourite fish, so it would be nice for her to catch some. Lets just hope that she doesnt scream again when a pike takes her lure close in, like she did the first time she lure fished, I thought she was gonna throw the rod in!!!!

My aims for this year are -
Firstly to fish more than I did last season (I think I managed 6 sessions last year!!)
To catch more barbel
To catch a river carp
To help Claire catch a PB perch (her PB is 1lb6oz)
I also want to up my river pike pb which currently stands at 13.04, although my lure best stands at 11.08

Thames PB 13.04

















Lure caught PB 11.08
















I also have several items of tackle that I have acquired, but not used yet, so hopefully through the new season Ill be able to put them through their paces and offer a review on them.
These items of tackle / bait are -
Delkim plus alarms, nash hooligan 2 rod pod, Enterprise quick strike butt grips and Fresh prawn, spicy shellfish boilies.


Good luck to everyone who is getting out and doing a bit, I hope you land the monsters you dream of, hopefully my time will come soon

tight lines

Tony

Personal best list

Below is my list of Personal bests -

Chub - 5.10

Tench - 6.00

Bream - 6.02

Perch - 2.15

Thames Barbel - 9.06

Carp 24.10

Overall Barbel PB - 9.08

Pike - 21.00

Thorpe Lea carp session 09th March 09

I decided to have a session at Thorpe Lea, as I had missed the last few days of the RIVER season due to Jake being poorly, I needed to get out and stretch my fishing legs!!

Its been so long since I have been out I almost forgot what I was doing, I had to stop and have a think about what I was setting up and how.
I decided to fish as I had successfully done in the past, with 15mm tiget nut boilies with small pva bags of 3mm green swim stim pellets.

Both rods were set up with 12lb mainline, small korda flying backleads, 3ft of 45lb ESP leadcore, one with a korda lead clip, esp strip tease hooklength, the other with a free running inline lead with korda supernatural hooklength and size 6 owner hooks.

I had a few new items that I wanted to test out also, my new delkim plus alarms, which I had only previously used once on the river for a few hours. I also had my new solar hanga-ball line clips on my solar bobbins that I had not used before.

I didnt arrive until just after 11am due to various reasons, one of which was being up through the night with Jake.
The lake has changed ownership since I last visited, as cemex didnt renew their lease in may 08, so it was taken up by a guy named Gary, who has certainly improved it quite a bit, carpark has been relayed, there are now toilets onsite, plus an office with tackle, food, tickets etc.
One thing I wasnt sure of was that you have to now pick your swim before you set off from the office. there was a guy in the peg I wanted (peg 6) so i opted to walk round and fish the other side of the island in peg 55. It was only a short 100yd walk from the car, but once I arrived in the swim, there was a guy carrying his gear round from the other side of the lake. I waited for him to get back and asked if he was using both pegs, turns out he was with his mate and would be!!!
So I walked back to the office told them the swim was taken and that I woudl set up in peg 4, which was a swim away from where I wanted to fish. After checking with the guy in peg 6 I found that I had quite alot of water to go at, basically from the point of the island which was slightly to my right, to as far left as I could cast as there was not a swim down to my left for quite along way.
One problem I encountered was the water levels were up about 8inchs so my peg was underwater, which meant I could only stand about 4foot from the waters ege, which didnt help casting to the left hand side! I got around this by jumping into peg 5 and cast out then passing the rod over the bush and onto tthe rod rests.
I should really have just set up in peg 5 which would have made it easier to cast, but as I was fishing down the left, I didnt want to risk someone setting up in peg 4, because that would then effectively give me not alot of water to go at, with guys to my left and right.

Both rods were positioned about 10 yards short of the island, any closer and the birds dive down and grab your bait!! Once rod was fishing on single tiger nut boilie with a pva bag of 5 other baits, the other rod was fished with a single tiger nut boilie tipped with flouro pop up corn. I had watched part 2 of the free korda dvd the day before and these guys really advocate the use of bright pop-ups to tip off your standard bottom feed bait. So I thought I would try it, as well as being visual, it also makes the boilie slightly lighter, so the carp would find it easier to hoover up.

Due to the difficulty in casting, I caught the tree on one of the casts causing the rig to get caught in the tree, snapping the hair rig in the process!!
So I retied another rig in the supernatural with size 6 owner hook, this was then recast to the spot. I then decided to recast the second rod, upon checking the rig I noticed the coating on the esp stripteaze wasnt sitting right, my own fault due to my crap rig making skills.
NOTE TO SELF - MAKE MORE CARP RIGS UP THE SAME SIZE - I have a rig wallet full of rigs, but not one of them is the same, so when im fishing If I need to change rigs I need to make one up from scratch!!!

I put out about 50 freebies via the catapult over the area covering both rods, my thoughts being that now the warmer weather was returning the fish might be on the hunt for some grub.

It didnt work, I fished until 4pm and packed up biteless!!!
I have blanked on there before, but to be honest to blank on a water with so many fish in it is kinda bad, but saying that, looking around the lake I only saw one fish caught and that was to the guy in peg 6!!

I suppose in hindsight, I should have tried harder, I was just content in being fishing, it had been quite a while since I was last out proper fishing, I think I was to content to sit there and wait for the fish to come to me.
I didnt see any fish movement at all through the day, but during the day before when I had popped in there I had seen fish surfacing in peg 6, which I why I wanted to fish there. In reality, as I only had my heavy barbel rods with me (2.2lb tc) I probably wouldnt have been able to reach the fish if they had shown anyway, the tip of the island was about the extent of my casting.

I think next time, I should take a walk around before I set up to try and find the fish, I suppose even though the lake is very heavily stocked it still takes finding the fish to catch them.
Im tempted to fish twynersh next time, a very nice setting of 8 lakes ranging from match and heavily stocked lakes to low stocked pits with 40lb+ fish in it.
I think that im a little apprehensive about fishing there, due to my previous sessions at thorpe lea, and the ease of fishing there, twynersh seems a lil more tricky. Plus its more expensive than thorpe lea, but then saying that twynersh is a much more pleasant surrounding.

Maybe ill take a wonder around there next week and get a feel for the place!